Erie Mayor Joe Wilson to give up interest in property; restraining order dismissed

Ethics investigation into mayor's real estate dealings still ongoing

Erie Mayor Joe Wilson before a hearing at the Boulder County Justice Center on Monday. Wilson agreed to relinquish his interest in a property where earlier this year he had gotten into a dispute with a tenant. (Paul Aiken / Daily Camera)

A judge dismissed a temporary restraining order against Erie Mayor Joe Wilson on Monday after he agreed to relinquish his interest in a property where earlier this year he had gotten into a dispute with a tenant.

Boulder attorney John Pineau, who represents tenant Karol Hopper, told Boulder County Judge Karolyn Moore that the restraining order against the mayor would be sought again if Wilson doesn't return the interest he acquired in a 5-acre property in the 1400 block of North 111th Street to its previous owner within 10 days.

Wilson became involved in the property late last year after Cheyenne, Wyo.-based MCB Trust purchased it from James McBride. Wilson has described himself as an agent, principal investor and co-listing broker for MCB.

Wilson's lawyer, Nancy Salomone, said her client disagrees with the accusations that have been made against him -- that he used intimidation tactics to try to evict Hopper -- but wants to eliminate the possibility of further friction down the road.

"Mr. Wilson made a decision to relinquish interest," Salomone said. "He decided that the best way to move forward was to remove the potential for any future conflict with Ms. Hopper."

The mayor was served with a temporary restraining order last month -- forbidding him to come within 100 yards of Hopper or her home -- after she called police to the property to report that Wilson had cut a lock on her driveway gate and then videotaped her through a window.

Hopper told police the mayor tried to "force his way into the house." She also said she felt Wilson's "body language becoming very hostile" and was "threaten (sic) by his demeanor."

Wilson denied intimidating Hopper and said he was simply trying to carry out an insurance inspection and had given Hopper the necessary 24-hour notification before coming on the property.

He claims Hopper violated the terms of her lease, which expires in November, and that he had notified her that she needed to correct those infractions or leave. The alleged violations, which Hopper disputes, include illegally boarding horses, failing to pay rent on time and running a dangerous electric line from the home to a trailer outside.

After Monday's hearing, Hopper said she is going to see if she might be able to buy the property herself, considering the fact that she and her daughter have lived there for 10 years and made improvements to it.

"I am so happy that he's out of the picture," Hopper said of Wilson. "We're just two girls trying to enjoy our life with our horses."

The property sits near the southeast corner of Arapahoe Road and U.S. 287, where Erie has been acquiring land for potential annexation and development. In December, the town's urban renewal authority decided against buying the McBride parcel. MCB Trust purchased the land just a few weeks later.

Concerned about a potential conflict of interest, the Erie Board of Trustees sought an advisory opinion from a judge about whether the mayor's real estate dealings had violated the town's ethics code.

But as that investigation was getting under way last month, an Erie resident filed an ethics complaint against Wilson, which prompted the board to call for a special prosecutor to look into the matter. Former Adams County Deputy District Attorney Brian McCoy is now investigating.

Wilson has always maintained that his dispute with Hopper was nothing more than a typical tenant-landlord flap that had nothing to do with his public office.

In emails obtained by the Camera last month through an open records request, Wilson assured his colleagues that he made sure his role as a real estate investor didn't conflict with his role as mayor, writing that he "carefully" studied conflict and ethics rules and statutes before getting involved. He was "careful not to cross any lines," he wrote.

But the resident who filed the ethics complaint, Elisabeth Fisher, questioned whether Wilson used his office to get "preferential pricing" on the McBride parcel -- by paying $275,000 for the property a couple of weeks after it had been offered to the town for $350,000. Fisher accused Wilson of not disclosing his relationship with MCB Trust to the town's urban renewal authority, of which he is chairman.

Fisher also raised questions about Wilson's involvement with another parcel at the same corner, which was bought by Erie earlier this year.

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